America must face the harsh realities over oil

[jpak]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article3964339.ece

President Bush was in Saudi Arabia at the weekend, trying to get his hosts to increase oil production to take some of the pressure off rising prices.

Ever willing to be seen to please their American friends, the helpful chaps at the House of Saud duly agreed to ramp up output by a few hundred thousand barrels a day. This, of course, is a drop in the tanker of Saudi, let alone global energy production, and to nobody's great surprise it had no effect whatsoever. The price of crude crept above $127 per barrel in London trading yesterday.

In economic terms, there's a not very polite term for what the President was doing which describes the futility and discomfort of performing a certain bodily function into a countervailing breeze.

But Mr Bush - an oilman after oil - knows this, too. His efforts were more of a political gesture than a meaningful policy initiative.

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[Javaman]

1. yes we must, doesn't me we will. nt